The 10 Great Websites that built History!

Hey Guys,Today afternoon I was just clicking around on my system when I found this very interesting piece of article-well, dunno about you but I did get my eyes pasted on to it for a while-this was about a list of the 10 most influential websites ever-ya, I too guessed those few names popping inside your head now, but dude like in my case u’r probably in for a surprise too-So what all websites were selected then? Well, take a look yourself.The Project (1991)The first website, published by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1991, to connect and share documents on personal computers via the internet. Built in: HTML 1.0 .When Berners-Lee launched this site, he also had to build a browser. This browser was called ‘World Wide Web’, which later changed to Nexus when he realized the World Wide Web was more than a browser, and the browser only worked on the now obsolete NeXTstep Operating System. Jim Boulton tracked down an original version of this browser and reunited it with a Next Cube, the machine that Berners-Lee developed the Web on, and the oldest existing copy of the original Web page.Antirom (1994)The Antirom art collective was formed in London in 1994 as a “protest against ill-conceived point-and-click interfaces grafted onto repurposed old content repackaged as multimedia.” With the radical vision to explore interaction as a media in its own right rather than as an interface for content, the collective changed the face of interactive design. Built in: Director 5.The Blue Dot (1995)Razorfish became one of the world’s most established digital agencies partly because of a bouncing blue dot. Created out of an apartment in the East Village, its homepage used the server-push GIF-animation capabilities of Netscape Navigator 1.1 to create the first animated website — crashing many browsers in the process. Built in: HTML 2.0, Director 5 (Shockwave), Real Audio.

Word.com (1995)

One of the earliest and most influential e-zines, Word.com was a true multimedia experience, incorporating games, audio, and chat. Built in: HTML2.0, Director 5 & Real Audio.

Noodle Box (1997)

A series of computer game like interactive experiments. Instead of using Shockwave to create an interactive piece within a page, it was used to create an entire website out of Director and, in the process, created a more immersive, holistic experience. Built in: Director.

Head-space (1997)

A collaborative creative space and a spawning ground for multiple interactive projects such as circlemakers.org. Built in: Director & HTML3.

Modern Living (1998)Starting as a comic strip in 1996, Dutchman Han Hoogerbrugge began publishing his Modern Living / Neurotica animations to his website as a series of looping GIFs in ’98. Soon afterward, he progressed to Flash, which introduced an interactive element to his art. Built in: GIF, Flash 3PS2 Pray Station 2 (2000)Joshua Davis wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. After his first two attempts received two rejection letters, a friend told him, “You don’t need them anymore – there’s this whole internet thing happening. You can self-publish.” Davis went out and
bought a book on HTML and changed the face of interaction design forever. PrayStation was Joshua Davis’s sketchbook. Built in: Flash 4.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

The website for the film Requiem for a Dream by director Darren Aronofsky. The website is much more than a trailer: It’s a cinematic gem in its own right. Requiem for a Dream was about addiction, compulsion, and inevitable descent. As the user descends deeper into the malfunctioning website, it gradually deteriorates and finally falls apart, ejecting the visitor in its death throes. Built in: Flash 4.0.

Subservient Chicken (2004)

Ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky wanted its creation for Burger King brought to life online, it turned to long-term collaborator The Barbarian Group. Its response was to create an interactive video-based site that allowed visitors to control the chicken via their keyboards. Want it to throw a cushion? Simply ask it. Sounds a lot like the famous Tipp-ex advert that went viral on YouTube. Built in: Flash MX

These were the 10 sites that were never on our charts to make it on our personal Top 10 lists- some of us might not have even heard of them- but these sites are typical landmarks that paved way to a much brighter future. “Since its invention 20 years ago, the Web has totally transformed the way we live our lives”, says Jim Boulton, partner at Story Worldwide and curator of Digital Archaeology. “Yet, tragically, many of the early websites, the building blocks of today’s always connected world, are in real danger of being lost forever and with them the stories of the unsung heroes behind them – the visionaries that invented modern culture.”

[Content Courtesy: ‘The 10 websites that changed the world’ by Paul Sawer on the popular site http://thenextweb.com ][Featured photo Courtesy: Google Images]